Alec Thomas Zeigler (born 28 May 1978), professionally known as Alec Moran is an American actor best known for portraying superhero Peter Parker / Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (2002-2007), Alex Whitman in the series Roswell (1999-2001) and Trip Fontaine in Virgin Suicides (1999) his first on-screen performance. He most recently portrayed hero Max Rockatansky in post-apocalyptic Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), the fourth film in George Miller's Mad Max franchise.

Early Life    Moran was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the only son to Karen (née Moran) and Jack Zeigler, a high school teacher. When he was three years old the family moved to Seattle, Washington where his mother was originally from. Moran has described his childhood as rather "uneventful and typical in a middle-class suburban desperate housewife fashion." His first experience with acting happened during one of his summer camp trips at the age of 5 in a production he helped to "fail in disastrous ways with his unique performance and inability to remember lines." He gained experience in school plays and local productions for children and teenagers.

Career    Following high school graduation, Moran moved south to Los Angeles where he attended University of Southern California but dropped out after two years to focus on acting. He obtained his first major role on-screen in Sofia Coppola's debut film Virgin Suicides with the supporting role of Trip Fontaine. In 1999, a year later, he was cast as Alex Whitman in the television show Roswell, in which he was a regular cast member for the first two seasons. During his time on the show he appeared in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Dawn and The Good Girl which both received critical success. In 2001, Moran won the role of Peter Parker in Spider-Man. A "nerve wrecking and challenging role", the film was a huge success for Marvel giving way to two more sequels and made Moran a star, who found it difficult to adjust to this newfound international fame and media attention.

   While his new status as international movie star gave him more opportunities, Moran seemed a certain anonymity and less attention in between wearing his Marvel costume. Between the Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, Moran wanted to break from this superhero and golden boy image. He starred in less high profile productions such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in a supporting role and was cast in a less than recognizable with the controversial part of Kevin in Sin City. A childhood dream come true, he played the supporting role of Preston in Peter Jackson's remake of the classic movie King Kong in 2005.

   Following the production of the first and final part of the Spider-Man trilogy, Moran decided to focus on movies with "more spirit and personality", leaving behind the blockbuster formula. He began a collaboration with visual filmmaker Wes Anderson with one of the leading roles in The Darjeeling Limited. The two eventually worked together again in Fantastic Mister Fox, in which he voiced the character Ash and Moonrise Kingdom one of Anderson's biggest success. Calling this his "indie era", Moran still received critical praises for his performances, with hope to leave this teen super-hero image behind him.

   Though he had never truly vowed to never return to the big productions, Moran was part of the summer big budgeted Pacific Rim as Dr. Newton Geisler a "fun, twisted, genius" character that was too good of an opportunity to pass. A fan of Del Toro, Moran has stated that working with the director had been a "joy and an experience he would repeat blindly." The sci-fi movie was a shift in Moran's career who, after a low profiled evolution of career, was making a "comeback of sort" with acclaims for his performances in the newest Marvel production as the voice of Rocket in Guardians of the Galaxy but also for his performance as "charming sociopath" Lou Bloom in Nightcrawler, which obtained him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in Drama. Explaining his choices and the more than obvious difference of tone between the projects, Moran explained how he did not want "to end up categorized. The direction I took after Spider-Man showed me that I could do more than one range of roles. That I wanted to do something different with each project while pushing my limits as far as I could."

   2015 was another year of early successes for Moran with Z for Zachariah and Mad Max: Fury Road, in which he reprised the title role portrayed by Mel Gibson 30 years ago. To this day, it was one of his "proudest accomplishment to be part of something so visually stunning with a great narrative. Filming was tedious, nerve wrecking but I was too lost in the story to care about my state of mind and body." It has been announced that he will reprise his role in the fifth film of the franchise.

   Moran made his Broadway debut in the 2014 play Constellations, which ran until March 2015. For his performance he received a Drama League Award nomination. A three performance Encores! concert of the musical Little Shop of Horrors is planned for July 1st and 2nd 2015 with Moran playing the lead role of Seymour next to Ellen Greene, who will reprise her role of Audrey.

Personal Life    In 1992, Moran's older sister April committed suicide in the family home. Following the tragedy, Moran and his family created Be April, a foundation focusing on suicide prevention and clinical depression. He is an ambassador for Hope For Depression.

   On the set of Sin City Moran met actress Charlie Brinke. The two actors started to date during production and married a few months into the relationship, announcement made during the promotion of Sin City. The marriage was highly publicized and followed by media and fans alike, mostly due to both Moran and Brinke's willingness to discuss candidly about their relationship. In 2008 the marriage ended with a divorce, with both actors explaining how this was an amicable but necessary separation in a joint statement.

   In 2010, Moran started dating [NAME]. The pair had remained friends since co-starring in Spider-Man. In 2013,the couple became engaged but the relationship ended in early 2015.